ORLANDO, Fla. – “RV Palooza – Rollin’ Thru the Decades” was theme for the Florida RV Trade Association’s (FRVTA) 44th annual convention, this year conducted at the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World Resort.
The three-day event – Sept. 5-7 – was packed with a welcome reception, an informative general session, a stable of instructional breakout sessions and plenty of entertaining activities like “Splitsville Bowling,” painting class, “Name That Tune” gameshow luncheon, silent auction and “Rock of Ages” costume party.
Dave Kelley, FRVTA executive director, said that while attendance was down a bit from last year, those who did make the trip to Orlando were enjoying the convention and “People come to have a great time. They get a lot of useful information.”
Audience members served as the jury as Friday morning’s General Session kicked off with Harold Oehler’s mock trial of a consumer’s lawsuit against an RV dealer and manufacturer. Oehler, of Oehler mediation, has over 30 years’ experience defending RV and auto dealers against consumer claims both as a trial lawyer and general counsel for Lazydays where he worked for 21 years.
The trial was a sequel to last year’s popular “Trial of the Century.” This year’s event served to train RV dealers how to prevent customer complaints from turning into lawsuits, recover customers with persistent service issues and work better with manufacturers to resolve customer issues and prevent litigation. Oehler’s mock trial offers practical techniques service employees can use every day in an entertaining and engaging format.
The trial was followed by four presentations from industry leaders – RV Dealers Association (RVDA) President Phil Ingrassia, RV Industry Association (RVIA) Vice President of Legislative Affairs Jason Rano, RV Technical Institute (RVTI) Executive Directory Curt Hemmeler and Florida and Alabama RV Park and Campground Association (FARVC) President Bobby Cornwell.
Ingrassia opened his remarks by commending the FRVTA.
“One of the things I’m always so impressed when I come to Florida and meet with you folks is just the unity and the strength of this association,” he said. “And I really encourage everybody here not to take that for granted. Because as part of my job at RVDA, I travel all over the country and there just aren’t state associations like this across the country. And so, it’s really important that you support Dave and this terrific staff and the board because if you take it for granted – I’ve seen it in other states – it can go away. So congratulations to Dave and the board and previous boards who have built this organization into what it is.”
Ingrassia then offered a market overview and discussed RVDA board priorities and professional development opportunities.
Regarding dealer sentiment, he shared data compiled by Milwaukee, Wis.-based Baird, a privately held financial services firm.
Referring to a chart in a PowerPoint presentation, Ingrassia noted, “Long-term sentiment continues to be kind of even – that’s three to five years. Where you see the red line, that’s current conditions. There’s a lot of concern out there with current market conditions.”
But, he added, “Things are getting better, and part of that reason is the dealers have really worked hard to get inventories in line with where they need to be. That’s a big difference from last year at this time. Going into the (Elkhart RV) Open House, the dealer inventory levels are much better shape than they were a year ago, and motor home inventories have really gotten a lot better as well according to the survey,” he explained.
Overall, he said “some of the projections that we’ve seen over the last few weeks are trending in the right direction for 2025. Unemployment is relatively low. We’ve got to get through these November election jitters. … There’s a lean used RV total market out there. Retail credit is tough for some of the customers, I’m sure you’ve seen. Wholesale seems to be steady according to our dealer survey. For 2024, Baird is projecting shipments near 320,000 and retail near 340 to 350. You’ll see that retail is going to outperform wholesale, so we’re seeing there’s an inventory drawdown this year again.”
RVDA board priorities continue to include repair event cycle time (RECT), of which, Ingrassia said, “We’ve got to do a better job getting people on the road after they’ve brought an RV in for service.”
He said RVDA is working alongside Rano and the RVIA to prioritize a fix for a travel trailer inventory tax error along with urging passage of the EXPLORE Act.
Under current law travel trailer dealers can only under write off a certain amount of expense on their floorplans. The law applies only to dealers with over $29 million in annual sales, but even so, Ingrassia said, “This is going to cost dealers about a hundred million dollars in excess taxes that they’re paying on floor plan interest. And it really is unfair because it only targets travel trailers.”
Motorhomes, boats, motorcycles, powersports and automobiles are not affected.
He said the RVIA has established a coalition of outdoor recreation people, trade associations and business groups to help promote passage of the EXPLORE Act, which would “modernize a lot of the public lands’ policies and procedures. Basically, for the RV business, it would help private firms who are doing business with the federal government do better maintenance, take some of the red tape out of doing like concessions for campgrounds and other things. This would be a really good bill for the RV business and to help modernize some of the older campgrounds that are on public land.”
In the professional development realm, RVDA, through the Mike Molino Learning Center, has five certifications for service manager, service writer/advisor, warranty administrator, parts manager and parts specialist, Ingrassia explained.
He also mentioned a free fixed operations app available in the Google or Apple stores online which offers five readiness tests for would-be fixed operations employees.
“It’s a gateway into the training that’s available through the learning center. Just search for RVDA in those app stores and you can download it,” he said.
Ingrassia told dealers about the RV Dealership Employee Emergency Relief Program, a fund set up through a $500,000 donation from Ron Fenech, a longtime RV industry executive and entrepreneur, who currently is one of the founders of Brinkley RV.
The fund provides up to $2,500 for RV dealership employees who have emergency needs, such as immediate family health issues or catastrophic incidents such as damage due to natural disasters, home fires or flooding. The program is expressly for all RV dealership employees. RV dealership owners/principals are not eligible.
He encouraged dealers to attend this year’s RVDA Convention and Expo planned Nov. 11-15 at Paris Las Vegas.
“We’ve got a bunch of speakers who are going to be talking about really important issues that are impacting dealers right now. On Thursday we’ve got a huge fixed operations part of the convention, which is going to focus on warranty training, service and parts. It is really going to be powerful way for you to get a lot of information in a very short period of time,” he said.
Rano opened his remarks with a measure of the economic impact of the RV industry, which nationally totals $140 billion annually. The RV industry in Florida alone generates $6 billion in economic activity.
The economic impact study is released every three years, “We are gearing up as an organization to rerun the numbers and that’ll be released during RVs Move America week, which is our big week in D.C. every June. Next June will be the updated numbers.”
He also noted that recent RVIA surveys showed 24,000 plus RV shipments in July, which is up 17.5% over July of last year and over 202,000 shipments year to date, which is up 9.5% for the same time period last year.
“And then every season or so, whether it be summer or fall or the holidays, we do a survey to see how many Americans are planning to RV,” he said. The survey showed 27 million Americans say they are going RVing this fall, 14 million traveled for the solar eclipse last April, and 7.3 million indicated they would go RVing over Labor Day weekend.
He spoke about legislative efforts the RVIA is pursuing, emphasizing that this is something RVDA and RVIA work together on “day in and day out.”
He said it was important for dealers to reach out to their elected officials on issues like the floorplan tax fix, explaining that “80% of RVIA’s membership is based in Northern Indiana, one congressional district. The person in that congressional district … is a great champion for our industry, but when we don’t have a broad coalition, we’re the only industry impacted. We need every voice. There are obviously dealers across the country and members of Congress love to hear from constituents, local business leaders, and so we really need your voice to get this over the finish line.”
At the state level, Rano says RVIA has been busy working to push franchise laws and laws addressing housing creep, where states seek to change the law to allow RVs to be considered housing, often aimed at controlling homelessness.
“Now it predates me, but everybody I’ve talked to is very clear that they have zero interest in revisiting the battle with the Housing and Urban Development Department that culminated in 2018 with good news for our industry, which is that we are exempt from being regulated as housing.”
He said in one state or another every year RVIA pushes back on efforts to classify RVs as housing.
Other issues on RVIA’s legislative radar include:
• Pushing back on the regulation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) commonly known as “forever chemicals” which are found in many components – carpeting, upholstery, drapery, etc. – which are used in RVs.
• Advocating for a revamp of de minimis regulations which create a loophole for Chinese goods to compete unfairly with U.S. manufacturers via duty-free importation.
• Work to re-instate a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade program that expired in 2020, driving up the cost of lauan imported from Indonesia, costing suppliers roughly $1.5 million per month.
• Work toward passage of the aforementioned EXPLORE Act.
With regard to regulations, Rano noted that “if Donald Trump returns to the White House, you better believe that on the regulatory front, California is going to do everything in its power to upend anything that a Trump EPA or Department of Energy tries to do. And if Vice President Harris becomes president, there’s going to be a ton of regulation coming out of EPA, Department of Energy and everything like that. We as an industry need to be prepared for either scenario and ready to push back and talk about the uniqueness of our industry.”
Some issues RVIA will watch include EPA emissions standards and DOE energy efficiency standards.
Regarding EV infrastructure, Rano said, “We spend a lot of time talking to states and talking to RV-friendly site hosts – Love’s, Bucky’s, Walmart’s, Target, Pilot, Flying J – to make sure that they are accounting for our industry with pull-through charging. So if you’ve got a Lightning with a trailer on the back, you don’t have to unhitch it to charge your Lightning.”
Hemmeler opened his remarks by noting Elkhart, Ind.-based RVTI just celebrated its five-year anniversary and “I’m happy to report that this year we have really completed everything that was originally put forward, even in the light of a pandemic.”
He said 19,000 people have had RVTI training in one form or another – 5,000 in the last year. There are 713 dealerships that have open RVTI subscriptions, 28 manufacturers and suppliers involved in or conducting RVTI training and 35 authorized learning partners – an entity that has a contractual agreement to use RVTI curriculum.
“The exciting part of that is, we signed our first high school this year in Colorado, and one of my right-out-of-the-gate strategic initiatives was to get the program into high school and specifically career technical education,” he said.
RVTI also has a prison that has now pushed almost 175 certified techs, into RV dealerships.
“And as we stand here today, there are 6,152 certified technicians across the country. Put in comparison, that’s about double what it was when we started five years ago. So very happy with that, but a lot of room to grow,” he said.
Obvious benefits of training are less turnover, happier repeat customers, fewer lawsuits and improved RECT.
RVIT delivery of training in person, online and through its network of learning partners ensures that, “there is nothing out there that prevents you from getting your person trained.”
The cost, subsidized by the RVIA, makes the training affordable, he said.
Currently, 75% of what’s being taught is not happening in Elkhart, and RVTI is working to expand even more, with more locations in its future.
“Texas, Florida, California, those are our target points. We’re going to continually expand in those areas using third parties such as high schools, Navarro College in Texas, and this is going to be there obviously to support the dealer networks but also grow the mobile tech business, which is so very popular,” he said.
Also, “high schools and career centers, career technical training, we’re going to continue to push on that hard and heavy. We have about 10 more high schools across the country right now looking to come online with us to teach this program. I would encourage any of you that live in your communities that have an aggressive or innovative career technical center or high school, just let me know. We’ll come in, we’ll do all the heavy lifting, and hopefully get you a nice pipeline of technicians for the future out of the high schools,” he said.
National branding, we’re going to do some national branding similar to like the ORV is talking about the career field of being a tech, both mobile and dealer. We’re going to put some money behind that using a few influencers, which all of you have kids out there and that kind of deal, everyone wants to be an influencer, so that shouldn’t be hard to find.
Cornwell whose organization operates as a sister association of the FRVTA, representing RV park owners and operators and others in the outdoor hospitality industry, characterized the industry as strong.
“It’s been growing steadily the past 10, 15 years. Obviously with COVID, just what you experienced with the RV sales, on the campground side, everything boomed. So ’21, ’22 were peak years. Those levels have, numbers have leveled off a little bit, stabilized. We’re seeing a little slight downturn in 2024, but that’s what we expected. We have a lot of our parks that are concerned a little bit, but you just say, ‘Look what you did in 2019 prior to COVID,’ and they’re still way up. So it is all good.”
Cornwell said Florida has more RV parks than any state in the U.S., with 1,260 parks and 225,000 campsites. Since 2019, the FRVCA estimates 65 parks have been built, adding 20,000 sites to the inventory.
“There are a lot of parks, a lot of inventory, a lot of RV sites, not really a shortage. I think we can meet the demand of all the RVers out there,” he said. “But admittedly some of the problem is all these parks are not parks that your customers will want to go to. We’re very aware of that. If we chip that number down to quality RV parks and campgrounds, it probably cuts that 1,200 figure down to around 700 and the site number is around 125,000.
He added that well-maintained parks have not seen as much of a downturn. “It’s the parks that are not being run properly or may not offer the amenities that the others want, are having a little harder time filling the park up,” he noted.
His organization is sees how the quality of campgrounds can affect RV sales.
“If you have a camper who can’t go to a site then that obviously creates an issue for the dealers, and the more quality campgrounds out there, the more RVs you’re going to sell. So we’re all very aware of that, and that’s something that we obviously try to encourage by educating our members, new park owners and developers. You have to increase your standards, have larger sites, properly maintained grounds and offer all the amenities that the campers need and want,” he said.
He said growth for parks that offer long-term stays has increased significantly while there has been a dip in short-term stays.
“Campers right now are wanting the security of being able to have a place they can call home, don’t have to worry about getting a site every year. That has been a trend that’s very interesting,” he said.
Parks that offer good amenities, are well-maintained, are doing very well. They have not seen the downturn.
Today’s campers are becoming more price conscious, and rates are coming down, Cornwell said, after being inflated by the pandemic boom in camping.
One of the biggest challenges his organization faces is local government regulations.
“In some areas of the state, unfortunately, RV parks are more or less frowned upon. They don’t understand who we are and what we do. They look at it as like a mobile home park in many situations,” he said. “We have to educate them on what the RV industry is all about, how it can benefit the community and why you need to have it as part of your asset which you offer to not only new residents but for visitation as well.”
He has talked to people who have been trying for years to get a park open but are being held up by “the size of a retention pond or an easement or whatever the case may be.”
Insurance costs also are a significant hurdle in Florida, Cornwell said, and the FRVCA is exploring formation of a captive insurance program.
He ended his comments by encouraging communication.
“I would love for our parks to communicate more with their local dealers, form programs that they can help promote each other, send new RV buyers to local campgrounds, have a day or two for on-site training, how to hook it up, how to use the vehicle. I think that would be extremely beneficial, helping customer service. And then also that campground can get new business and there could be promotions going back and forth between the dealer and the campground owner and operator,” he said.
Break Out Sessions on Saturday included a recap of Friday’s mock trial and “How to Stay Out of Court” with Harold Oehler, of Oehler Mediation.
Also:
• “Red Flags Rule & Steps to Protect the Dealer from Identity Theft with Ejola Cook of Ecook Consulting, LLC
• “Florida Sales and Use Tax : Avoiding Surprises” with H. French Brown of Jones Walker
• “2024 Changes to Florida’s LP Gas Laws and Q&A” with Richard Kimsey of the Florida Department of Agriculture
• “Navigating the Online Highway with Traeanne Reynolds of Greentree Business Consulting
• “Integrating AI to Enhance Sales Management and Training Processes with Stephen Hudson & Greg Gutkowski of AI Tsunami Group, LLC
Event sponsors were:
• Bronze – General RV, Keller Marine, Thor Motor Coach, Highstreet Williams and Stazzone Insurance
• Silver – FRVTA Region 1, FRVTA Region 3, M&T Bank
• Gold – Brown & Brown Dealer Services, FRVTA Region 7, Grand Design, Jayco, New Frontier Products, NTP-Stagg, Wells Fargo
• Platinum – Bank of America, Forest River, FRVTA Region 6
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